Paris, April 18, 2023 – Natale Romeo, born in 1997, from San Lorenzo Marina, in the province of Reggio Calabria, is the winner of The Best Upcoming Chef of Italian Cuisine, the competition held on Monday, April 17 in Paris to crown the best emerging chef of Italian cuisine, French edition.
The first French edition of this competition organized by the Associazione Cuochi Italiani in Francia in collaboration with I Love Italian Food, a cultural association and international network that promotes the authentic culture of Italian food and wine around the world, was met with great enthusiasm.
The jury was presided over by Agostino Coppola, president of the Associazione Cuochi Italiani in Francia and a long-time chef in the region. Alongside Chef Coppola were four other internationally renowned judges for the promotion of Italian cuisine: Enzo Oliveri, President of the Associazione Cuochi Italiani in UK – Foreign Delegation of the Federazione Italiana Cuochi, Massimo Mori, Chef Patron of the Armani/Ristorante in Paris, Lorenzo Alessio, Team Coach Bocuse d’Or Italy Academy, Alessandro Bergamo, Executive Chef of the Ultima Courchevel Belvedere Resort in France
“La triglia a modo mio” is the name of the dish that triumphed. “I chose mullet for my final dish because it reminds me a lot of my childhood and the strong passion that links me to my father and grandfather, whom I used to accompany on my fishing trips when I was a child. Moreover, it is a very delicate and tasty fish, which allowed me to create a combination with seasonal vegetables such as red beet, which reminds the color of the skin of the red mullet, and fennel. To finish, I created a smoked avocado cream and crazy water sauce,” explains first runner-up Natale Romeo, who has lived in France since 2016 and is Junior Sous-Chef at L’Emblème restaurant at the Mouratoglou Resort, in Sophia Antipolis, Nice.
The Best Upcoming Chef of Italian Cuisine competition was held as part of the event “The Italian Show by I Love Italian Food“, an important showcase of Made in Italy and Italian products in France, which attracted more than 700 restaurant and press professionals, as well as producers and protective consortia that came from Italy to represent the world of gastronomy, wine, but also mixology.
With great determination, the Calabrian chef stood out among more than 80 competitors in the first selection phase and then against the other five finalists of the competition for the best hope of Italian cuisine. “We are very satisfied with the enthusiasm and the strong involvement that was created around the competition”, says Agostino Coppola, president of the jury, “a friendly atmosphere was created among the finalists and the level was very high, so it was not easy for us, the judges, to choose a single winner. We are proud to have realized this project in collaboration with the cultural association I Love Italian Food, with whom we are already ready to work on the second edition for 2024”. On the other steps of the podium, chefs Giuseppe Castagna and Antonello Cabras came second and third respectively.
